The Legend of Zelda: The Turn Back Clock
by FreezerBurnXL
Summary: The second of this trilogy. Warning: Read the first story of this trilogy, The Legend of Zelda: The Threat to Hyrule, or you won't know what the heck is going on. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1: Painful Memories

**Short Notice**

Okay, this time I own a new character, a new place, and a new item: Malari, the Turn-Back Temple, and the Turn-Back Clock.

Everything else is owned by Nintendo.

**Painful Memories**

" This is where I live," Medli said. Link looked around him. They were standing on a cliff with wood railing along the sides, so one wouldn't fall. The cliff was on the side of a very tall mountain surrounded by water. The cliff seemed to jet out like a spear, and one could look at the ocean. Below, Link could see not to far below, a beach next to a meadow and pond. Link had so many questions about Medli's home, which she had previously told him was called Dragon Roost Island. For example, he want to know how they got there in the first place. However, he thought it probably wasn't a good time to ask.

" Do you like it here?" Link decided to ask.

" Yes, it's a nice place to live," Medli replied. " Get's a little warm during the summer, but you just got to live with these things." Medli was looking out at the sea. She turned around to look at Link.

" Link! Why don't you live here with me?" Medli said. " I'm sure you'll love it!"

" What? Oh, well I…" Link said.

" Come on. I can get you a place to stay. Or at least try…" Medli said, thinking about her financial problems.

" I'm not sayin' I don't want to," Link said, " but I have a home… in Hyrule."

" I'm sure my chief will welcome you into the village. And you'd make lots of friends here on Dragon Roost," Medli said. She seemed to be becoming upset with Link's not wanting to live on her island. " … Please."

" Medli, I'm sorry, but I can't," Link said. Medli looked away and closed her eyes in thought. Link saw a tear trickle from her closed eye. Was this really that important to her?

" I understand…" Medli said. Just then the water began to rise. A tidal wave formed very close to shore. It was about to swallow the island! Medli turned around and looked at the monstrous wave that was approaching. She turned to face Link again. " It's a good thing we're safe, right?"

" Medli! Let's go! It's not safe here!" Link said.

" What are you talking about? Of course we're safe," Medli said. " You said so yourself."

Medli grinned at Link and waved. Link could not understand. Was she alright? The tidal wave was coming their way! All Link could do was watch as the wave crashed down on the cliff and Medli was gone.

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" No!" Link said. He sat up and felt the cold sweat run down his face. He was sitting on a cliff looking over a forest. In the distance he could see the Death Mountain range.

" It was all a dream," Link thought. However, this did not comfort him in the slightest. How long must he feel the burn of these painful memories. It has been three days since the fall of the his comrades… Three days since the deaths of his friends.

Link got up and stretched. He knew that despite the fact that he was deeply upset about what happened to his friends, he had to go on. But what would he do? Zelda said that this mission was too dangerous to carry out alone. Link continued to walk among the trees, hoping only that he would find assistance along the way.

" Link!" a voice said. Link instantly recognized it as the voice of Makar. " Link, hurry up! Your falling behind!"

Link looked around feeling excited. However, he saw no one. He was forgetting that they were gone and was starting to hear their voices. All of the sudden, he saw someone in a few yards away. It was Ruto.

" Ruto!" Link said. " I can't believe I'm saying this, but you have no idea how happy I am to see you! … But that doesn't mean I'm marrying you!"

Link ran towards her. Ruto simply smiled at him. Why didn't she say anything? Wasn't she happy to see him? Link continue to run in excitement. Just as he was right in front of her, he ran into a tree that seemed to appear out of thin air. He was seeing things.

" Come on, Link, pull yourself together!" Link told himself. " You have to move on and leave the past behind!"

A light appeared before him. It grew brighter and brighter. Then, where the light had been, the image of Zelda's head appeared before Link.

" Hm…" Link said aloud. " If I'm seeing Zelda now, then that must mean something's happened at Hyrule castle! I've got to go back!" He turned around to leave when Zelda's head spoke.

" No, Link, I'm fine!" she said. " I'm using the Ocarina of Time to contact you."

" Oh," Link said, slightly embarrassed by how stupid he must have looked. " Heh, right."

" Anyways," she began, " I heard about what happened. I'm disappointed, too, but you have to keep your wits! We'll discuss this incident when you return, but for now just move on!"

" Yeah…" Link said gloomily. " … Right…"

With that, Zelda disappeared. Link continued through the forest. Suddenly, he fell and began to slide down what seemed to be a natural chute in the ground. He stumbled as he reached the bottom of the chute, and fell flat on his face. He got up and looked around. The chute led him to the front of what looked like a large, ancient temple.


	2. Chapter 2: The TurnBack Clock

**Short Notice**

Sorry it took so long. So… um… Yeah. Here ya go.

**The Turn-Back Clock**

Link entered the temple. It looked as if someone built it, but never bothered cleaning it. The walls were covered with moss and vines. Every spec of wall and floor was covered in filth. It certainly wasn't one Link's preferable places.

" So… You came here looking for it, too?" a voice said. Link looked around, startled.

" Who's there?" Link said.

" You're afraid of the shadows, aren't you," the voice said. Link realized that it was the voice of girl around his age, by the sounds of it.

" What are you talking about?" Link said. " Show yourself!"

" If I reveal myself, will you be afraid?" she asked. " I truly dislike people running away from me… before they even know me…"

" I won't," Link said, with hesitation. What was this all about? Just then, Link's eye caught something in a shadowy corner. A figure rose from the ground, but not menacingly, like the corpse of a dead soul emerging from a grave. It arose sort of gracefully, as if it were ghost rising through a hole in the ground. As it glided out of the shadows, Link got a clearer look at what it was. Just as he guessed, it was in the shape of a girl his age, but she was not normal. She seemed to be wearing a dress that dragged across the floor, because there was a shadow surrounding her as she glided across the floor. Just the way she glided and was surrounded in a vibe of darkness was mysterious enough, as if she was made of shadows entirely. The only facial features Link could see were white shapes for eyes and a mouth, and the shape of the nose, ears and here shoulder long hair.

" Who are you?" Link asked.

" My village was attacked," she said. " I was the only one who survived. It was terrible… Monsters invaded and we didn't know what to do… People screaming… People falling around me, dead… Then, all went dark… I thought my time on earth was over, but a light shown in the darkness, and then I stood exactly where I was, in the middle of my destroyed village, and I was like this… Consumed by darkness… The monsters were gone… I was still alive… But now a days, I wish I had been killed…"

" I'm sorry," Link said. " I lost people who were close to me recently, too. What's your name?"

" … I don't know…" she said, her head sinking in misery. Her eyes closed into white curved lines and a glowing, pearl-like tear trickled from one. " The curse that has fallen upon my life has caused me to forget my family, my friends… even my own name…"

Link stood there for what seemed to be decades listening to the shadow girl's sobs. He felt much pity for her. He wished there was something he could do.

" … But you can call Malari," she said. " That's what those who know me for what I am now call me."

" What is it that you're looking for, Malari?" Link asked.

" An ancient treasure," Malari replied. " It gives the user the ability to reset time and change the past. It was created by an ancient race millions of years ago. It is called the Turn-Back Clock."

" You want to use it to change the past so that your village would not have been destroyed and you would not be the way you are?" Link asked.

" Precisely," Malari said. " Why did you come to find it?"

" Actually," Link replied, " I didn't come looking for it. I'm traveling and I just sort of ended up here."

" Well, help me find it and you might find a use for it," Malari said. "Is there anything in your life you want to change?"

" Well…" Link said. " There is something… Something that happened recently… That caused me to lose my friends."

" If we find it, we can both use it," Malari said.

" Yeah," Link said. " I guess."

" Great!" she said. " Now, I'm very close to finding the chamber in which the clock is hidden. We need to find a stone in the floor of this room that sticks out of the ground more than the others."

Link looked around him. The stone flooring was so uneven that he thought it would be impossible to decide which were below level or above level. He began to walk around. Suddenly, he stepped on one of the stones and it sunk into the ground. Then he heard the sound of crumbling walls. Malari turned to look at him.

" I didn't do it!" Link said. A wall near Malari slowly lowered to reveal a flight of stairs going downward. They looked at each other and nodded. They then began descending the stairs.

After a while, they were still descending. Link was exhausted. He was panting like he never had before. Malari looked at him curiously.

" What's wrong with you?" she asked.

" What's wrong!" Link said. " I'm exhausted!"

" I'm not tired," she said.

" Well, of course you're not tired!" he said. " You don't even have to walk. You just float… or glide… or… or whatever it is you do."

Link then heard sobs behind him. He turned around and saw that Malari had stopped and was sitting on a step with her face buried in her arms, sobbing.

" Just once, I wish I could walk like a normal person and actually get tired," she cried through her tears. Link, realizing that what he had said was not the best thing to say, felt terrible. He went back up a few steps to where she was and sat next to her. He put his hand on her shoulder.

" Look, I'm sorry," Link said. " I didn't mean to hurt you."

" It's okay," she said. And wiped away her pearl-like tears. They continued on.

" It's a good thing this passage is lined with torches," Link said, trying to change the subject. " We wouldn't be able to see. Or at least I know I wouldn't, I don't know about…"

Link stopped in the middle of his sentence, realizing what he had just said. He once again heard sobs behind him. He gave a sigh and realized he would have to watch what he said from now on.

Later on, they finally reached the bottom of the staircase. It lead them to a chamber where light was leaking through a hole in the ceiling. Conveniently, the single ray of light was pointing to a pedestal where a small sapphire pocket watch sat. They walked up to it (or glided up in Malari's case). It was a curious looking watch. Where the numbers would be were actually strange symbols that Link did not recognize. Under it was something written, but Link couldn't read it as it seemed to be in ancient script.

" I may be able to read this," Malari said. " … I think it's instructions. ' One full turn equivalent one hour.' That's what it says."

" So all we got to do is turn it back the number of hours we want," Link said.

" Exactly," she said.

" Great!" Link said. " Um… You wanna go first?"

Malari thought for a moment.

" No," she said, " You first."

" You sure?" Link asked.

" Positive," she said. " You found this room, remember."

" Um, okay," Link said. " Thanks."

Link could suddenly feel the excitement of being able to save his friends. He could hardly believe it was happening. That he was getting a second chance to be able to save Medli, Makar, and the rest of them. He figured they were attacked about twenty-four hours ago, so he decided to go back twenty-seven, as he thought they were in Death Mountain Cavern for at least three hours. With that, he turned the knob on the watch twenty-seven times. Malari grabbed his shoulder so she would travel with him. Thus began Link's mission along with his new friend Malari.


End file.
